Hollywood spotted Bridgewater cornfield from air

Thursday

Sep 24, 2009 at 12:01 AMSep 24, 2009 at 3:52 AM

How did Hollywood find Bridgewater? That is one of the first questions people ask when they hear that Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz will be in Bridgewater filming a scene for their new movie, with a working title of “Wichita.” The answer is a lot of phone calls and scouting of locations.

Theresa Knapp Enos

How did Hollywood find Bridgewater?

That is one of the first questions people ask when they hear that Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz will be in Bridgewater filming a scene for their new movie, with a working title of “Wichita.”

Filming of a simulated crash of a Boeing 727 in a Cumberland Farms cornfield at the end of Curve Street is expected to start Thursday.

But why Bridgewater? How did 20th Century Fox Films find this particular cornfield in this mostly residential town of 25,000 about 30 miles south of Boston?

“I called a lot of farms and spoke to a lot of farmers,” said Hyunsoon Moon, assistant location manager for 20th Century Fox Films. “One thing led to another and I got to the (Bridgewater) cornfield and that was it.”

Stanley Kravitz, Board of Selectmen chairman, said he’s been chasing Hollywood for three or four months trying to close the deal.

Kravitz said the movie company contacted the U.S. Department of Agriculture to see who owned farms in Massachusetts.

“They called in a bunch of farm-type people to see who had land, and some of those people called me because I’m fairly well-known in the agricultural community,” said Kravitz, noting that he deals with the USDA on a regular basis in his private cranberry business.

But Hollywood wasn’t looking for a cranberry bog — they needed a picturesque cornfield.

“They looked at a number of places in southeastern Massachusetts,” said Kravitz. “They were quite impressed with a number of pieces we had shown them … And when they flew over Bridgewater, they said, ‘This works perfectly.’”

The cornfield is part of a 263-acre parcel of Cumberland Farms land tucked away at the end of Curve Street, which is owned by the Haseotos family.